The largest solar powered boat ever to set sail, the Turanor is on the final leg of a round-the-world tour, the first time anyone has managed to sail around the world powered entirely by solar energy. The massive 8.5 ton boat comfortably carries a crew of a half dozen or so with plenty of room to host a dockside party for 100. It cruises comfortably at 5 knots but is capable of double that speed on particularly good days as it cuts through the waves with its knife-like design.

Most impressive — the boat can can store as much as 3 days worth of sailing power in a huge rack of lithium ion batteries — thus allowing it to sail in the dark of night without a hitch. Swiss founder Raphaël Domjan conceived of the project as a way of proving what's possible with today’s technology in terms of clean transportation powered by the sun.

‘Jackson Pollock’ models for leadership. The programme at ‘Developing Leaders for Tomorrow‘ last week encouraged us to question models of school leadership, and several keynotes highlighted the diverse and increasingly complex hierarchies that are emerging in schools.

However, some schools are deciding that hierarchies for development are not the answer, and recognising the power of ‘ground up’ leadership of learning. In his keynote, Andrew Jones shared an interesting analogy for thinking about leadership models. Such models are often depicted in the form of neat coloured boxes in a hierarchy or workflow- and we saw several such diagrams during the day depicting complex, but highly organised visions for collaboration right up to local authority and national level. The problem, as Andrew put it, is that whilst much time, effort and money is spent on defining these organised models, the reality of practice on the ground usually ends up looking more like a Jackson Pollock image. 'Faux Pollock' from Seemsartless.com. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity.

That video has been viewed more than eight million times. Just a few weeks ago, Robinson presented a video TEDx talk in London, addressing how population growth and technology are fueling huge changes in education, and the imperative to make all schools progressive. He argues that the principles of what’s considered “alternative” education are those that should be applied to mainstream education. It’s hard to argue with these ideas.
Learning withour frontiers. Changing Education Paradigms. Ken Robinson - The Element. Behind the TEDTalk 2010. Sir Ken Robinson.com. Www.nnschools.org/art/ArtsandMinds.pdf. Sir Ken Robinson: Transform Education? Yes, We Must. As the new members of 111th Congress wander through the building looking for their desks and lockers, it may feel for some of them like the first day at school.

They should hold on to that feeling. One of the biggest challenges they face is sorting out American education. Given the recession, the dire situation in the Middle East and the general state of the planet, education is probably not at the top of their to-do list. It must be soon. Transforming education has to be at the root of everything the new administration hopes to achieve, and nothing it does in the short term will be sustainable otherwise.

President-elect Obama swayed the nation on a promise of change and the renewal of the American Dream. All of this is the work of education. My family and I moved to America almost eight years ago. President-elect Obama has said that NCLB was well intentioned, and it was.
Sir Ken Robinson. Www.accenture.com/NR/rdonlyres/7B7C0952-0C11-4A49-8E4E-280F09E5F097/0/Accenture_GCF08_Robinson.pdf. Ken Robinson - unlocking_creativity_-_a_strategy_for_developement.pdf. Ken Robinson - unlocking_creativity__a_creative_region.pdf.